Mighty Fine Time for Gluhwein!

This recipe was adapted from www.wishfulchef.com

Let us preface this by saying we are using the wine out of the liquor cabinet and aren't by any means wine connoisseurs. No turned up noses, please.

Ms. Schnitzel ingredients used:

1 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon

1/4 cup The Kraken Spiced Rum

1 cup Organic Apple Juice

1 large orange, peeled then juiced

1 lemon, peeled

1 lime, peeled 

2 tablespoons mulling spices

1 nutmeg, about 15 gratings

1 organic cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, halved 

 

Now get to peeling your citrus...

It is surprisingly difficult to find star anise in LA so we opted for a mulling spices blend. There are a lot of little bits and pieces so I secured them in a coffee filter tied with a hemp cord. This prevents you from having to sip your Gluhwein with a tight lip filtering out the loose little floaties. 

Add in 1 cup of your favorite apple cider or apple juice. 

Add in your orange, lemon and lime peels, orange juice, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean and bag of spices. Now set your timer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes add in 1/2 cup of wine to your simmering mixture. Set your timer one last time for 30 minutes. It's ok, it's ALMOST wine time!

Add the rest of your bottle of wine and spiced rum and warm for 5 minutes or less. 

 Don't warm for any longer, otherwise you will burn off the good part that gives you the warm and fuzzy feeling!

Now pour yourself a cup, and sit by a cozy fire or sparkly Christmas tree.

Schnitzel Notes:

- use either lime OR lemon peels, not both, OR zest 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime and put into herb satchel

- add 1/4 cup Gran Marnier for a more balanced flavor

- if you like your wine a little more sweet, use a Pinot Noir 

Chicken Fricassee With Fluffy Dumplings

It's cold out there friends and, for those of you suffering the early onslaught of wintry snow we've been hearing about, we have just the stew to warm your kitchen and your spirit - German-style chicken and dumplings! Mmmmm.

This is perfect for when you're homebound and want to fill your kitchen with all of the comfort and warmth that the outdoors lack, and is filled with staple ingredients so you might be able to pull it off without having to go to the store. It does take time though, and is especially fun with a cooking buddy.

We used boneless, skinless (humanely-raised!) chicken breasts and thighs and they were so fork-tender by the time this was done that they just kind of fell apart. We also used cipolline onions again since we all loved them so much in the Breasts of Chicken Paprika. Any chicken and onions you have on hand should do the trick though. And just look at our beautiful veggies! What veggies are cuter than carrots with their tops on? (Sorry celery and cipollines, you're cute too!) Seriously, if you come up with one let us know below. :)

Now here's a handy thing to know after struggling to take the skins off of pearl onions fairly unsuccessfully for the entirety of our lives, and generally avoiding them because of this fact. We didn't notice the first time we used the cipollines, but there are instructions right on the package! And this can work for ANY pearl onions. Just blanch them whole in boiling water for 3 minutes, run them under cold water to stop the cooking (and save your fingers), cut off the root end, and the onion will just pop right out of its skin. Here's a life hack that really does work, tried by yours truly here at Ms. Schnitzel. Avoid these sweet delicious little onions no longer!

We had a lot of fun this particular Saturday evening, multitasking the Chicken Fricassee with the Chilled Raspberry Pudding....

All while enjoying some delicious German beer!

 do what you gotta do when you have sticky dumpling fingers

But let's face it, we are all about fun in the Haus von Schnitzel.

However, we also take our food seriously and were rather shocked at Grandma's Cookbook for suggesting biscuit mix. Not to criticize this gem of a cookbook, which has not let us down yet. Not even close. But we chose to make our dumplings from scratch using this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dumplings/

The only adjustments we made were to use Earth Balance, hemp milk and pure cane sugar, 1 to 1 ratios. These dumplings were tender, delicious, and everything we hoped they would be. And since Tara is lactose intolerant, this was a perfect way to make a creamy, delicious and satisfying meal dairy free!

Other than the aforementioned adjustments and the substitution of an entire sprig of fresh rosemary for dried, we followed the recipe pretty closely and it turned out simply mah-velous. Remember, it is very important when adding your flour/water mixture to the boiling liquid to really stir constantly, otherwise you risk clumpage. Not that clumpage is the end of the world or anything.

That's it y'all, get cooking! We promise you won't be disappointed. And stay warm out there!

Sauerkraut Pizza, Ms.Schnitzel Style

 

We are really excited to share this recipe because it is super simple to prepare and yet still meets up to the Ms. Schnitzel Standard of Excellence! You could make it for Friday pizza night when you're exhausted from a long week of work, or throw it together for a casual gathering of friends.

We tested it three times to ensure we had the right balance of flavors. Oh, the sacrifices we make! 

The first time we ended up having to go to two different stores on empty stomachs, which is never a great idea, and we were getting HANGRY. (That is not a typo, it is a term that is defined in the Urban Dictionary, though Tara initially thought that Jen and GK made it up.) So we tossed our grandiose ideas to the side and just smeared some garlic infused oil on our crust, topped it with sauerkraut, sausage and cheese and threw it in the oven. It was super quick and pretty darned good, especially with a bit of horseradish. But we knew it could be better.

The second time we wanted to do a test run of our idea before the big MSU vs. OSU game, which is a tradition in these parts, and at which we wanted the pizza to make its big debut. We will not talk about the outcome of the game as there is a bitter rivalry between the founders of this blog.... Outcome of the game aside, the outcome of this pizza was brilliant - no matter who you ask!

See our lovely array of ingredients:

Pretty simple, right? When we are feeling more ambitious, we will make our own crust. But we had a whole game day spread to prepare, and buying Trader Joe's dough really made prep a breeze. You could also buy a prepared crust, which we did on our hangry night with a Whole Foods brand organic prepared crust. So you've got options.

Since our dough was chilled, we needed to bring it to room temperature for 30 minutes. Having tried to hurry this process before, we highly recommend you take the time to do so or your dough won't be pliable. Like yeah, it will just break apart when you try to stretch it. But this is the perfect amount of time to prep your ingredients.

Once your ingredients are prepped and the dough is ready, go ahead and spread it out or, if you're fancy like this fella we know named Rob, toss it in the air pizzeria style!

Then, drizzle some garlic oil on the crust and spread it all over, including the edges (fingers work well if you're not afraid of getting them a bit greasy!). We used pre-infused garlic extra virgin olive oil, but you could also gently heat a finely chopped clove of garlic or a few shakes of garlic powder in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and that would do the trick.

Next, spread your sauerkraut sauce evenly over the crust.

After that comes the sausage.

And finally, plenty of cheese!

This was definitely a hit, even the skeptics were made believers! It's not German, but it is German-ish. :)

Our Ingredients:

1 prepared pizza crust or dough ball

1-2 Tbsp garlic infused extra virgin olive oil

8 oz Cortland Valley organic sauerkraut

8 oz organic mixed medley cherry tomatoes (so pretty!), halved

1 small organic gala apple (also pretty!), grated

Pinch of caraway seeds, optional

6 oz (or 2 links) of precooked Brats Hans Chicken Brats, cut into thin rounds

8 oz Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar (roughly, or more to taste)

Horseradish to serve, optional

1) Bring your dough ball (if using) to room temperature.

2) Make sure to start simmering your sauce first so that the flavors have a chance to meld together and the tomatoes and apple get tender. For one pizza, throw 8oz of sauerkraut, 8oz of cherry tomatoes (cut into halves), and 1 grated apple into a small saucepan and turn it to medium. If you'd like to throw a pinch of caraway in, go for it. We tried and liked it both ways.

3) While the sauce simmers away, preheat your oven according to the directions of your pizza crust (ours was 475*). Slice the bratwurst and grate up half a block of white cheddar - the Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar comes highly recommended. 

4) Once the dough is pliable, spread it out or toss it to fit your pizza pan. Spread the garlic oil all the way to the edges of the dough. Evenly distribute the sauerkraut mixture over the dough, using a slotted spoon and pressing out most of the liquid. Place your sausage rounds in a pleasing pattern, and top everything with as much cheese as you fancy. Just remember, this is cheddar and it is stronger than mozzarella.

5) Pop the pizza in the oven and bake it according to the directions of your crust of choice. Ours said 10 minutes but took a little longer. Just make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!

This recipe is so easy to double since we used exactly half of all the ingredients we purchased. Or you could just save the other half for the next time you want Sauerkraut Pizza. Like later in the evening... or the next day... Because you will want it again, and soon. Trust us.

Seriously though, we hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Have a fabulous weekend!

Applecake

Apfelkuchen! There, it needed to be said. How does one take the most simple of ingredients and, with equally simple preparation, produce the most delightfully down-to-earth treat ever? Apfelkuchen, or Applecake, is the answer.

With the plethora of apples spilling over the shelves of any market you go to at this time of year, and their rainbow of colors and patterns, we have been seduced into making all sorts of treats. Whether it's apple pancakes (see our previous post), apple crisp, quartered apples smeared with peanut butter, overnight muesli with fresh apples, or just sinking your teeth into a crisp, juicy, sweet or tart, flavorful (insert your favorite kind of) apple, we're on it!

This recipe was so quick to throw together and was met with such great reviews that Jen is considering throwing it into the Thanksgiving mix this year... And you know we take these decisions pretty seriously.

So you start with three bowls. One small one to mix together the brown sugar and butter topping - don't forget to bring your butter to room temperature in advance! (Bonus: If you are avoiding dairy you can totally use Earth Balance, or your dairy-free butter of choice, and almond milk. Voila!) One medium bowl for your eggs and milk. One large bowl (or oversized measuring cup) for your dry ingredients.

We like to keep in mind, the simpler the recipe, the more important the quality of ingredients. Which is really a win-win situation.

We reduced the amount of sugar called for by 2/3 cups, since we had sweet apples instead of tart and we like the flavor of our awesome ingredients to take center-stage over the sugar. We were a bit concerned, with the science of baking and all, that the texture might suffer.... We actually considered that this might be our first fail. But fail, we did not!

It certainly helped a lot in the preparation process that Jen has this crazy contraption that peels and slices apples all in one whirl (Tara will have one someday too, see the video on our sauerkraut recipe and prepare to be amazed), but grab a friend and a couple of paring knives and we're sure that part of the prep process will fly by with good conversation.

Once you've mixed the wet ingredients into the dry, you'll find that it is a pretty thick batter that needs to be spread evenly with a spatula, and that's ok. Then, if you are as OCD as we are, you will lay out your apple slices in a perfect mosaic pattern and realize you have way too many apples for that and dump the rest on, spreading evenly with your spatula. Last, dot your very moist, not crumbly and dry at all, topping all over the top.

The recipe suggests to eat this warm out of the oven, and we are not arguing. But this is a fairly large cake, good for a crowd, and if there are four of you it is likely you will have leftovers. Eat them for breakfast. Yes, we're serious. This is a sturdy, pastry-like cake and with our reduction in sugar it is perfectly but not overly sweet. Great for dessert AND breakfast (or lunch!), as Rob and GK would attest to. Go on, ask them!

We also had a moment of thinking that the delicious sour cream sauce from the apple pancakes would be sooo good with this cake. Not that it needs anything else. But come on, that sauce?!

Oh, one last thing... We used vanilla almond milk, which was divine. It is completely acceptable to use any plain milk of your choosing, but we strongly suggest throwing in a teaspoon of vanilla extract or scraping some vanilla beans into the mix. We think that flavor really took it over the top and the recipe might be a bit plain without it.

Happy mixing!

Oldie but so goodie!

Well, it's no secret that we like to indulge in the occasional delicious beer around these parts. What's better after a long stressful week (or day!) than a nice cold one with friends, music, and good conversation? This is not a new practice by any means, people have been doing it as long as people have known the magic of fermentation, and have been producing it since at least as far back as the 5th millenium BC. In fact, back when water still presented a danger in Europe, people brewed beer as their primary form of hydration in the form of small beer (with big beer at night ;). Check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer

Men, women, children, people of all classes, all drinking beer all day, at least in places where grapes were not readily available for wine. Crazy? True story. In the country people brewed their own, in the cities the brewers were important and often wealthy craftsmen, and it was quite common for monasteries to brew beer as well. Many of the oldest existing breweries have monastic origins. Some sources might suggest that people did drink water too, but that is not what we're talking about right now.

One of the things we love about German beer is that they've actually maintained a law since 1516 ensuring purity standards, so you know that there are no unwanted chemicals or additives in your beer. It's just beer and the ingredients that should go in it. How cool is that?! Germany is also one of the major opponents of genetically modified food in Europe, with the EU already having one of the most stringent GMO regulations in the world (again, backing this up with Wikipedia... that's valid, right?). Plus, if you've ever seen the water flowing down from the Alps in Bavaria, you know why the beer is so tasty! Pure, delicious beer.

We happen to have an amazing selection of German beer at our disposal via the amazing Vendome down the street, where we can pick up a couple of half-litres at a time to share and sample. And we've noticed in our "research" that many breweries claim to be the oldest.... The oldest in Munich, the oldest in Bavaria, the oldest in Germany. And we've been wondering, here at the Ms. Schnitzel tasting room, which really IS the oldest? 

Take the lovely at the top - the Augustiner Bräu Edelstoff - we really loved this beer. It was light like a lager, a Helles Lager to be exact, but had a bit of the flavor of a hefeweizen - very smooth, a hint of citrus or something sweet, no bitter aftertaste. Refreshing, oh so tasty, one of our faves. Is this really the oldest in Munich, as the packaging brazenly claims?

So if you're a history nerd and love beer, this is the post for you!

Weihenstephaner - Yay! We love this brewery, the hefeweizen is really what made Jen begin to love beer! This is in fact the oldest brewery in Germany, actually the oldest existing brewery in the world, tracing its monastic roots to 768. The monastery was originally dedicated to St. Vitus, hence the shout out with their very strong, might we warn you, Weihenstephaner Vitus. Later it was dedicated to St. Stephen, and so the name of the brewery. The brewery was licensed in 1040 by the City of Freising, which is the founding date claimed by the modern brewery.  If you haven't tried any of their beers yet... Well, you haven't really lived, have you.

So that answers the question of the oldest brewery in Germany, and apparently Bavaria. So what's up with Augustiner's claim to being the oldest brewery in Munich? Well, Weihenstephaner is actually about 25 miles outside of town. So Augustiner is actually Munich proper's oldest brewery, dating back to 1328. That's still pretty old.

Weltenburg, which we have yet to try, was actually founded in 1050 -  so not far behind Weihenstephaner - while Gaffel (1302), Franziskaner (1363) and Spaten (1397) are formidable institutions as well. We know we love Weihenstephaner, Augustiner, Franziskaner, and Spaten, bring on the Weltenburg and Gaffel! So now you know what we'll be looking for next.  

Prost!

Ms. Schnitzel's Double Trouble Burger

Whenever Jen asks her boyfriend what he wants for dinner his response is ALWAYS either, "burgers or fish and chips." This time, Jen succumbed to one of his demands. With German food ideas on her brain, and a fresh taste of German cheese on her tongue,  Jen had a light bulb moment. What if we make a German cheeseburger?! Jen's boyfriend would be so happy and the Ms. Schnitzel test kitchen would have an original recipe to fire up. Brilliant! But what is a German cheeseburger without a homemade pretzel bun?

Jen and Tara quickly got to work following the exact recipe from the Pretzel Bread post and instead of making pretzel bread, they shaped the dough into hearty buns. 

The rest of this idea is simple, the homemade pretzel bun holds an organic, grass-fed burger, sauerkraut and cheese (choose one of 2) topped with your favorite German mustard, layered in whatever order you prefer.  

There are two cheese options for this burger depending on your taste buds. You can either use the Cheddar Beer Spread (from previous post) or use the German blue cheese (from Pretty Cheese with Sugar on Top?). We all had a difficult time choosing a favorite because they were both delicious in their own right. 

We would love to hear what different German cheeseburger combinations and flavors you come up with? Feel free to comment below! 

Chilled Raspberry Pudding

We have another pretty, fresh seasonal berry-filled dessert to share with you which has a unique texture thanks to the addition of tapioca, and it is truly bursting with flavor. 

Grandma's recipe called for Port, something neither of us had ever tried before much less purchased. We opted for the bottle below as it was the cheapest and we didn't want to spend a lot on something we weren't sure we would care for left over. Port is a heavy, sweet dessert wine (makes sense in this context!) and it really wasn't too bad if you're into that kind of thing. We kinda like it. Would it be a sin to say it might even be good over ice, kinda like Sangria without any work (or fruit)? At least the cheap stuff?

Anyways... When you check out the recipe you'll see it calls for quick-cooking tapioca. We like to make things more difficult for ourselves though, both for the sake of authenticity and to help educate ourselves and our readers. And it just really is kind of a fun challenge to test our skills in this way. So we bought the real stuff, which had to be soaked overnight. We did not have to adjust the recipe in any other way and it worked great! Those little suckers soaked up so much raspberry goodness, contributing to the overall effect of raspberry flavor bursting in our mouths!

The recipe also calls for frozen berries, but we are still at the tail end of raspberry season down here in So. Cal. and we love to use fresh ingredients whenever possible. Just look at those beauties!

We decided to reduce the amount of sugar in both the pudding and the whipped cream, which we think turned out to be the perfect amount, really allowing the flavor of the berries to shine. You can always adjust the sweetness to suit your own taste. This may actually be necessary as some berries are more tart and some are more sweet.

The last little experiment we tried was to use an immersion blender to make the whipped cream, and holy schnitz! It was whipped in like 2.5 seconds! In fact, Tara wasn't convinced it was possible for cream to whip that fast and perhaps overwhipped the cream. It was a bit dry... So, moral of the story: If you want to try this method, please believe your eyes no matter how impossible what you see may seem.

Otherwise, the pudding firmed up nicely and was really so very tasty. We like to think it's kind of a healthy dessert, if such a thing exists. After all, tapioca is all natural and derived from cassava root and the main ingredient is raspberries, those brilliant antioxidant and vitamin rich little delights. And a bit of sugar in moderation keeps us happy. Happy is healthy.

We have to say, we are just so impressed with Grandma's Cookbook - we haven't had a dud yet! (Knock on wood. Seriously. Please?)

Adieu,

Pretty cheese, with sugar on top?

This German Cambozola is as pretty as our title suggests - a rich shade of cream veined with dark blue marble. Do yourself a favor, if you see this at your local cheese counter, BUY IT. It is soooo good. 

Tara has been a lifelong hater of blue cheese, but she braced her tastebuds and tried it, never one to shy away from culinary adventure... with some notable exceptions, but we'll save that conversation for a rainy day. Anyways, she could not get enough of this! And Jen, in cheese heaven, was inspired to come up with some of her most creative descriptions yet:

"Like a stinky sock, but a one day stinky sock. Not a five day. That's just the kick." (The kick, get it?! The kick of flavor in the cheese, but we're comparing it to socks, feet, you know?)

"It's like Stilton knocked up Brie and they had a German baby." Indeed, an apt description. Creamy and mild for a blue cheese, but with a definitely blue... kick. Yeah, we said it again.

Stilton and Brie, sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love, then comes marriage
Than comes Cambozola in a baby carriage!

So on that note, we'll leave you with a little teaser: We made pretzel buns yesterday from our previous pretzel bread recipe, and will be testing a Schnitz original recipe tomorrow using this Cambozola and the aforementioned buns, but the rest is a secret...Shhhh. Stay tuned!